Spanning two decades and countless light years of interstellar adventure, Star Trek: The Motion Pictures Collection is a testament to the enduring goodwill of Gene Roddenberry's optimistic sci-fi concept. Long before Star ... more &raquoWars sparked an explosion of big-screen science fiction, Roddenberry had planned a second Star Trek TV series; the project fizzled, but its pilot script evolved into the first film in Paramount's most lucrative movie franchise. Despite its sluggish pace and bland "pajama" costuming, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) offered a welcomed reunion of the "classic Trek" cast, packed with Douglas Trumbull's still-dazzling special effects. Trekkers were even more ecstatic when The Wrath of Khan (1982) revived the spirit of the original series, even though director Nicholas Meyer was a Trek neophyte. With Leonard Nimoy directing, The Search for Spock (1984) began where Khan left off, with a thrilling (albeit contrived) obligation to resurrect the formerly ill-fated Mr. Spock. A box-office smash, Nimoy's The Voyage Home (1986) is the franchise's most accessible adventure--a high point offset by William Shatner's comparatively dreadful Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Meyer (and his penchant for quoting Shakespeare) returned for The Undiscovered Country (1991), a conspiracy thriller that put the series back on track, inspiring fans to invoke the "even number" rule in rating their franchise favorites. Generations (1994) gracefully passed the torch to TV's The Next Generation, bidding farewell to Captain Kirk with honor and integrity intact. Highlighted by the evolving humanity of Brent Spiner's android Lt. Comdr. Data, First Contact (1996) explored Star Trek history with a logical (hint) surprise encounter, and Insurrection (1998) provided an adequate expansion of the successful TNG series. Taken as a whole, these nine films demonstrate the consistent vitality of Roddenberry's original vision, stoking any Trekker's appetite for "ongoing missions" in Nemesis and beyond. --Jeff Shannon&laquo less

Member Movie Reviews

Adam C. (i12bnmovie) from SAINT LOUIS, MO Reviewed on 8/21/2013...

New, live-action, Star Trek hasn’t been seen since June 3, 1969. I am aware of the old superstition about the odds and evens. The odd films suck. The even films are good. My co-worker that has been making this journey with me warned me that this film was not so good. With low expectations, I hit play.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture opens with three Klingon ships approaching a cloud. The cloud attacks the Klingons, and all three ships are destroyed. A close Federation outpost witnesses the encounter, and relays the information back to Starfleet.

We then find ourselves on planet Vulcan, where Spock (Leonard Nemoy) is in the middle of the Vulcan ritual Kolinahr, where he will purge all emotion to have pure logic. But, right before the ritual can be completed, his human half gets the better of him as he hears some calling.

Next, we go to Starfleet Headquarters, which is located in San Francisco. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) arrives via futuristic train, and heads straight for the new, “repacked” Enterprise. He beams up where is met by Scotty (James Doohan), and they take a shuttlecraft pod to the Enterprise. This scene goes on for way too long. It is minutes long. It is just a slow camera panning around the entire Enterprise, no doubt trying to show off the visual effects used, and the new sleeker model.

Once on board, Kirk makes his way to the bridge where is greeted by Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig). He informs the crew that he will be relieving Captain Decker (Stephen Collins, no relation to me) of captain duty. Kirk then makes his way to Capt. Decker to demote him for the journey. A transporter malfunction leaves the crew without a science officer, and Decker will assume that responsibility. It is worth noting that Yeoman, now Lieutenant, Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), from the first few episodes of Star Trek, makes a quick cameo as the transporter officer.

Finally, the last two people come aboard. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) comes against his will, only to find out that it was Kirk that requested him. And just before undocking, the crew is joined by navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta), a Deltan who has taken an Oath of Celibacy, but clearly has a past with Decker.

We finally undock and head out to intercept the cloud. Right off the bat, they hit a wormhole caused by the new engines. Once corrected, they level out, and are hailed by a random ship wanting to drop off a person. That person is Spock. With the crew from Star Trek: The Original Series fully assembled, they continue on their voyage.

When they come face to face with the cloud, it sends a probe through the Enterprise, shocking Chekov and killing Ilia. Chekov is tended to by Nurse, now Doctor, Christine Chapel. Suddenly, an intruder is aboard, and it is Ilia, only she is acting as a probe for V’Ger. V’Ger is the entity behind the spaceship hidden in the cloud. Kirk and his crew must find a way to make V’Ger stop before attacking Earth.

Oh my God! Star Trek: The Motion Picture finally comes to its anti-climactic conclusion after over two hours. Every scene could have and should have been trimmed by two to three minutes. What astounds me is the DVD contains 16 deleted scenes. What? There was even more footage? Wait! They had an editor, and he left this much in? I have another question, too. Where did all the colorful uniforms from The Original Series go? Who decided on the drab grey? And, there were no redshirts! The security team wore really weird looking padded uniforms and helmets. It was laugable.

It is clear that four-time Oscar winning director Robert Wise was going for an epic feel, but the story did not support it. There are just so many scenes that have no dialog for minutes. They just serve to show how “epic” the movie is trying to be. Exterior shots of the Enterprise as it is pulled into the alien spacecraft. Even shots of the interior of Enterprise to show off all of the sets that were constructed. The direction makes absolutely no sense, other to display how the budget went from $15 million to over $40 million. Not to mention Wise’s over use of the Split-Focus Diopter shot. The Wikipedia page for the shot even lists Star Trek: The Motion Picture as an example.

The script by Harold Livingston is based off a story by Alan Dean Foster that was originally going to be a pilot for a new Star Trek show that was scrapped. That makes sense to me since there appeared to be about 45 minutes of story dragged out to over two hours. And the story wasn’t even that good to begin with. Jerry Goldsman’s score is decent, but repetitive. Somehow, he got an Oscar nomination for it, as did the Art Direction and Visual Effects. The film went 0-3 on its nominations.

I cannot fathom who read this script and thought it was a good idea to make it into a film. Star Trek: The Motion Picture miraculously breathed life back into the dormant but not forgotten franchise. It made over $82 million domestically and cleared another $60 million internationally. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, that is over $260 million, making it the second highest grossing film behind only the 2009 reboot. So, despite how terrible of a movie it is, it revitalized the franchise and spawned eleven more films to date, and four additional television series. Not too bad for a pile of garbage. But, it is sad that it didn’t even meet my low expectations. No matter how much you polish a turd, it is still a turd.

Movie Reviews

THE BARE-BONES DVD COLLECTION

Therese cano | Los Angeles, CA USA | 10/24/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a big Star trek fan and a big DVD collector, but I own no Star Trek movie DVDs. Why? Because up until November 6th's release of The Motion Picture, the ST movie DVDs have had NO extras except for a trailer! Besides being overpriced for such bare bones editions, I found it insulting that Paramount would release such obviously collectible movies as anything less than Special Collector Editions jam-packed with extras... and had a feeling that they would start doing that AFTER they were finished releasing the bare bones editions, to make fans eat it twice - and lo and behold, Paramount has announced plans to revisit the movies as Special Editions... So its incredible that even then they're releasing this boxed set. WHY buy it? Wait until they release the Special Editions!"

Save your money (and pardon the rant)

James B. Lynch | Farmingville, New York United States | 11/15/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was patient. I waited and waited for this box set. I steadfastly held out and did not buy the individual DVDs so I could buy them all at once with the new, exciting features I was sure this set would contain. I should have known better.Mind you, the box itself is nice, but that's about it. Paramount is once again finding a way to milk the Trek fans for more money with a sub-standard product. There are virtually no extras, the sound and picture quality are nice (the Motion Picture does have a cleaner look & clearer sound) but almost every DVD I own is better than these. I am very, very disappointed. Not surprised, though. Paramount is famous for this. Look at the DVDs for the TV shows. While other big TV shows put out beautifully packaged box sets with extras and cool features (see X-Files, Sopranos, & The Simpsons for best examples) Paramount makes us pay (dollar amount) per DVD for 2 episodes with nothing special about them at all. At that pace, you'll spend over (dollar amount) for the whole series. I have the first 4 seasons of the X-Files (nearly 100 episodes - Original Trek had around 65) & I've spent (dollar amount). This is called greed, ladies and gentlemen.But I digress. My advice is this: Next year, the 10th Trek movie comes out. This gives them 18-20 months to come up with some new extras & package all 10 films. Hold out, be brave, and pray that Paramount decides to be nice to the fans who have supported them and Trek for more than 30 years."

Great idea!!...but no savings!!!!

Matthew E. Hamilton | Piscataway, New Jersey | 11/04/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since I bought a DVD player, this has been the day I have been waiting for!!! The day when Star Trek comes out with a collection set of all their DVD's.

As I feared, the colleciton comes with all the what I call "naked" DVD's in it.

What a waste!!! Paramount had the perfect opportunity to hit us with a collection of DVD's that were packed with extra features from all the films!!! You will not convince me otherwise that Paramount is doing this just to make money and turn around and sell the better version of these DVD's later!!! If that is the case Paramount, then shame on you!!!!

You have enough money, so give the people what they deserve!!!!! A collection with deleted scenes, commmentary, still photos(there are millions of those!!!).

This is basically pathetic!! Don't waste your money so Paramount will come out with a product worthy of Star Trek fans!!!"

In case you missed it the first few times...

James B. Lynch | 11/26/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"To reiterate: They ARE releasing Special Editions of ALL of these movies, one by one, over the next several months. Do NOT waste your money on this overpriced, underfeatured box set."

I'm with the other guys...

Zagnorch | Terra, Sol System | 11/22/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Greetings, all. I was gonna warn you to not get this set 'cause Paramount will soon be releasing all of these in Special Edition format. Slowly. One by one. Probably on a monthly-to-bi-monthly basis, so they can all revel in the glee of the DVD-collectin' Trekkies' frustration whilst rakin' in the bucks from the sorry people who bought the regular-edition flicks. Like I did, unfortunately.However, it looks like a couple folks have beaten me to it in the kvetching department. So, just ignore my review, and take a look at what my other fellow Amazonians are saying about this sad collection. As you can see, we're pretty much on the same page regarding this situation. Thank you for your attention.'Late!"